The dry season had, at long last, left the parched lands for another year in order to give way to the rains. Some of those very rains had kept Razi from calling the meeting she'd been trying to get to for some time. Between chasing her pups all over the territory and relocating her den twice to be out of reach of swollen river on some particularly rainy days there just hadn't been a good moment. Until now.

The clouds were overcast as per usual, covering the canyon in a great swath of ominous shadow that just screamed bad weather. Trotting along some of the safer paths with her children in tow, Razi hoped to hold a very brief meeting. Long enough to introduce the children, as well as herself in her new position, anything else might be pushed back until a day that was a little clearer arrived so she could speak without cautiously glancing at the looming rain-heavy sky that threatened to start pouring at any moment. Glancing behind herself to the straggling children, Razi called an encouraging, "Almost there!" In fact, yes, this was the spot.

Settling herself and her offspring at the outcropping, elevated a good ways away from the river but no where near the top of the canyon, Razi took a position at the top of a short rise where she'd be elevated enough to be seen by a group and heard when she spoke. Seiran came scurrying after her, seeking to bury her face in Razi's dark fur. Once she felt ready, Razi sent a howl ringing through the canyon to summon the pack. She wouldn't tolerate any tardiness or absentees at this meeting. The call made that much clear; the pack members would just have to come answer it if they were confused as to why such an expectant call was coming from her and not Ashiel.

Some of the wait was spent grooming her fussy little daughter, who happened to have horrendously ruffled fur from romping about on the way there. It was peaceful. Was. A thunderous crack in the distance drew Razi's attention. When she turned to see where the lightning had struck, her pale gold eyes went wider than they ever had before. From the eastern side of the canyon nearest the ocean a thick wall of rain was fast approaching. It was unlike anything she'd ever seen before, so dense, the sound that preceded it made the earth shake. That much water, it would flood the canyon easily. It was coming right for them, swallowing the land in an almost solid wave of water that almost couldn't be called rainfall. Razi almost screamed, then she thought about howling to the pack but- no, no time, just run!

Get to high ground, run, run! She sought to scoop up the pups by their scruffs. She paid no mind to how heavy they were now, all that mattered was getting them all out intact. Scrambling for the fastest path to the top of the canyon, the woman sought to flee as fast as her legs would carry her, hackles raising as lightning struck on the other side of the canyon.



OOC: Eclipse/Aurum is disbanding due to lack of time to run it. If any pack members want to post please go for it, here or in your own thread if you really want to. If anyone wants to have arrived to the meeting place and be near razi at the time the monsoon arrives I'm down to try and make something out of this thread. Members are free to join other abraxas-run packs if they so chose.

Shilah scrambled after his mother. For once he was quiet, subdued by the nausea that was tormenting his stomach. He didn't understand a lot about the weather but something about the way the clouds were building made him terribly nervous. He stuck close to Razi, drinking in her encouragement. When at last they made it to the meeting place he promptly did his best to snuggle between Razi's front legs.

An enormous crack of thunder broke through the sky. Shilah squeaked in fear and sought to press himself closer to his mother. Then the earth began to shake and he began to cry. "M-m-mom!"  She scooped him up with Seiran and then everything became a whirling mess of movement. He couldn't stop screaming and even as he did he wondered if anyone could possibly hear him over the noise of the storm, even when he was hanging limply from his mothers mouth.

Pyralis returned to the canyon with a limp in her left hind leg from a rather nasty encounter with a mountain lion. She would swear up and down she hadn't been looking for trouble but that was a lie. She'd been looking for trouble. She'd been looking for Amon. The rumors swelling around the madness of their father had been eating at her since her brother had left. The fact that he'd left without her ate at her. The fact that he had not returned… it ate at her. On top of that, Asharya had all but disappeared. Pyralis had been looking for her daughter to and coming up with naught but bitter nothingness. No signs. Nothing. Oh how life ate at her.  It was a wonder there was anything of her left when she felt so skeletal in all but her physical appearance. She'd performed rituals, sacrifices, anything she could think of to get some sort of sign and nothing. She was starting to think all this business of gods was nothing but garbage! What if her father was nothing more than an insane old man? What if all this was nothing more than a fairy tale and their successes merely their own rather than the result of some divine favor? Pyralis knew such blasphemous thoughts could spell death for her and so she never spoke them but she wanted to, she desperately wanted someone to talk to. She couldn't ever remember feeling so alone. When she arrived to the meeting place she smoothed out her gait, walking through the pain as a carefree grin spread on her face. She opened her mouth to shoot some sly comment and apology at Razi when a loud crack of thunder caused her to turn. On the far end of the canyon sheets of rain swept toward them, water from some broken, rocky dam followed suit, crashing down into the canyon floor. It would flood within moments! Panic started to rise in her chest. Where in the nine hells was Ashiel? Razi scooped up her pups and Pyralis bolted. Adrenaline numbed the pain in her leg as she leapt from one ledge to the next, seeking to get higher. She was moving on instinct and her skill as a master navigator but as she moved something inside her snapped. Anger, burning white and hot bubbled up and out of her throat as she began to curse at the sky, to curse whatever supposed 'god' she was descended from. What could possibly be the meaning of this? What could this possibly be for? If there were such a thing as gods she couldn't help but feel that she and her family were merely pawns. She didn't feel like a goddess. She felt like prey. As the water closed in and crashed around her she spat one final, defiant expletive before she was swept into the madness of the current. "Talk" "You" Think

Ashiel was running late to the meeting. He'd finally finished securing what he needed for the ceremony for Razi's pups, well, the items at least. He still needed to speak with Malleus and some of the older Abraxas about the finer points and words for the ritual but he was rather pleased with it all and all. The going had not been easy. As luck would have it he'd developed a respiratory infection from his accident in the canyon that had taken him time to get over and Griff had only just healed his wing. The pair were quite a mess but Ashiel had a good feeling they were on the right path. It was time to start reclaiming their religion and their culture as it pertained to life outside of conquest. He wanted to learn everything he could which meant talking with all the older Abraxas he could manage to pin down. A howl rang out for a meeting and Ashiel grinned. He was excited for Razi to take the role of leadership and he felt confident in her skills. She was certainly wiser and more knowledgeable about their family. He started to make his way up when a sudden cry from Griff caught his attention. The clouds were mixing and twisting and as he looked behind him a large spear of lightning struck the earth with a loud crack. He heard the sound of dislodged and tumbling rock as the rain suddenly beat down on him but the rush of water was undeniable. The canyon was flooding! "Griff! Get clear! Get clear!" His eyes locked with the birds for a moment and then it was off into the sky. Ashiel did his best to climb after the bird but he was to far down and the water to fast. Once again he felt himself tumbling end over end, the cold of the water ripping through his skin, the rocks and branches pummeling him as he tried to surface. Ashiel closed his eyes and prayed. "Talk" "Griff" Think

The child followed after her mother and sibling dutifully, ears standing at attention as she surveyed the meeting place with keen interest upon their arrival. A meeting was a new concept, and Seiran was not sure what to make of the idea of being surrounded by pack members. It sounded crowded, though her mother had said they didn't have tons of members so what she was picturing likely wasn't what it would be like for real.

After a short wait during which the child had seated herself on the side of her mother opposite Shilah and only just began studying their aunt who'd arrived when a sound so loud she thought she might go deaf split through the air towards them. Blue eyes widened in fear, little body frozen as her mother reacted to whatever was happening by scooping both pups up and running with them. It all seemed to happen so fast, Seiran could only look around in a daze as Shilah screamed beside her and suddenly she realized she heard water somewhere getting closer and closer.

Dangling from Razi's jaws, bumping against her sibling with every other bound Razi took in her flight from the apparent disaster, her mind finally caught up and the girl began to cry out of fear. Her heart pounded faster every time their mom leapt from one ledge to another, more so when she looked down and saw the rocks that crumbled at the edge of each cliff anytime a fleeing paw brushed them.

Somehow she didn't expect them to make it out, so when she could see greenery ahead that signaled they were near the top of the canyon the child found herself breathless despite the circumstance, or maybe because of it. Exiting this territory had seemed a long way off before, but now they were so close!

She had been hunting, trying her best to wrangle something up to bring home. Thought surprisingly the prey seemed to be absent tonight. It was worrisome that she could barely find any sign of life other then the trails of her packmates. Being that the floor of the canyon was unsuccessful and began to climb, searching the large and small paths along the canyons walls for something. It worried her even more that she couldn’t find anything thier either. Something was off and she couldn’t quite figure out what it was. Continuing to move and cover ground she began to head in the direction of Razi way before her call was placed and by the time the call was made she was close enough to get there in a timely matter. Although she was a lot lower on the canyon wall then where Razi had been. She had managed to climb up further before the loud crack practically made her jump out of her skin. She could barely see where it had hit, but that god awful sound. She tried to hurry her pace, but it was no good. A large wave of sea water crashed into her taking her off her feet and away in the water. She struggled within the swirling water to get to the surface, down and up down and up was the motion of the water. Her eyes burned from the salt water so she forced them closed.

Unable to see what was happening, but with some struck of luck the water piled into one of the canyon bends smacking her into the wall and allowing her to land on one of the larger paths the pack used. She gasped, coughing and hacking, spitting and sputtering before attempting to open her eyes. She had been swept quite a distance from the meeting place. Then a wall of water crashed into her again, smacking her against the side of the canyon and seeping her back under

-fade to private thread with Typhon-

Everything happened rather suddenly. One moment Typhon had been resting peacefully, curled against a particularly large boulder, when suddenly a loud crack of thunder in the near distance arrested his attention. He'd been napping, blissfully unaware of the storm stewing overhead - though when he finally stirred and cast his attention to the skies he knew this wasn't going to be a small one. He slowly began to amble upwards toward the top of the canyon, and it wasn't long before he heard Razi's call to gather.

By the time he nearly reached the top, the rain had begun. The slow, steady beat of rain against the earth slowly intensified as he grew closer to where Razi had called them from, accompanied by the boom of thunder, much closer now. Typhon scowled slightly, furrowing his brow to brace himself against the rain, which seemed to be coming at him sideways the heavier it got. He was still quite a ways away from the meeting spot, but before he could get there he noticed the sudden rush of water, crashing like the waves of the ocean over the lower portion of the canyon. It had opened up suddenly, akin to a waterfall pouring over rocks.

Typhon felt panic well inside his chest. Somewhere up ahead he saw a cluster of wolves gathering, though who was up ahead was difficult to make out against the sheets of rain that pummeled the canyon. But somewhere even closer, a bit lower on the rocks, he heard coughing, just as he saw the glimpse of a body being pulled by the incoming water and thrown mercilessly against the rocks. His heart sank almost instantly. Was that Zinnia? Though Typhon was far from a selfless creature, it seemed heartless to let go of a follower of the Empire. Zinnia was not family, and yet she had chose to serve them.. was she not valuable? Assessing the risks, he decided to veer down the canyon - navigating the precarious rocks as carefully as he could, with the rising water almost as quickly as he could move. A low growl built in his throat as he headed toward her, growing both frustrated and worried as the water seemed to carry her away. Finally, after considerable effort, he reached her and began to pull her to higher ground by her scruff. She was unconscious, and he was still fighting the crashing water, but he was determined to get her - and himself - back to safety.

-exit-

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